Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 Read Free

shook his head slowly and turned the volume down. I watched as he programmed the digital recorder so we’d have the luxury to watch this later and consider the news reports and mundane speculations.
    Reaching out, I grasped Hellion’s hand and we clung to each other, though I didn’t completely understand his reaction. It felt like I should, though, so I didn’t ask again for fear of appearing foolish and, well, just out of fear.  
    Hellion peeled my fingers off his and reached over to grab the empty water glass he’d fetched me earlier. He walked into the bathroom and emerged a brief moment later, the glass refreshed. Hands that could heal, love and destroy trembled violently.  
    Shit. I hated conversations that started with such bad news that I needed to either compose myself or throw up. The whites of my eyes must have shown clearly as he sat on the edge of the bed, set the water on the nightstand, and took my hands in his. There was something strange, suspiciously familiar to sympathy, in his eyes.
    Sighing, Hellion said, “ Mo chroí , I’m not exactly sure how to break this to you.”
    “Probably best just to get it over with,” I croaked, my voice still a little raspy. The way his hands shook made me more nervous than his silence. “Yeah, get it over with.”
    Nodding, he started to explain, and with every word out of his mouth, a horrid realization settled over me. “The stone henge where your Evolution triggered was called Pickledean, Maddy. When your Evolution occurred, you were bonded to that henge as the Niteclif, and it became an entry and exit point for you.” He took a deep, shaky breath as if fortifying himself to go on. “The best the Council could tell, we knew you’d enter through a stone circle in Wiltshire around Midsummer’s Eve and you’d serve your ten years… Oh, Maddy.” His voice broke and he buried his face in his hands. “I’ll kill him for this.”  
    He shot off the bed, startling me, and began to pace the perimeter of the room. He finally came to a halt at the end of the bed. Staring at me, he crawled up the mattress and gathered me in his arms again. “Maddy, just as you needed that circle to enter your Evolution, you needed it to get out of the evolutionary cycle and trigger the end of your service.” He waited.
    …to get out of the evolutionary cycle… Understanding was gradual, like the rise of the moon from the dark horizon.  
    “No,” I whispered, shaking my head slowly. “No, Hellion. I won’t survive this, not indefinitely.”
    “You will,” he growled. “By the gods, Maddy, you will survive this.”
    I sat in his arms, numb. Bahlin had delivered his vengeance against me in the most effective manner possible. Now there would be no getting out of this cycle, there would be no end for me other than death because… Oh hell. “Hellion?”
    “Say what you want done, Maddy, and I’ll see it carried out even if it means raining hell down on him myself.”
    “No, no. It’s not that. It’s just, if I don’t age while I’m the Niteclif, and now I can’t get out of being the Niteclif, am I immortal?” The man beside me grew so still I wondered if he’d willed himself away. “Hellion?”
    Moving in exaggerated slow motion, Hellion took my hand up and kissed my knuckles before setting the hand down and laying his cheek on my hair.  
    “I’ll take that as a yes.” I was strangely calm about this. “If I’m immortal, the only way for me to get out of the Niteclif role is to truly die, right?”
    “Don’t speak that way, mo duine dorcha . We’ll find a way out—”
    “No, we won’t.” Without understanding the calm conviction I felt, I knew with absolute certainty that there would be no working around my family history. My opportunity for any type of graceful, self-powered exodus was terminated, and I was faced with living this life of violence forever or finding an out through death. Closing my eyes, I shook my head. Bahlin had secured the